Angel Fire Bike Park — Local services in Angel Fire

TLDR; Due to an outdated website and a horribly managed department, I'm out almost $200 on top of a $400 season pass.

I apologize for the long winded review, but I hope someone will listen to my experience to understand how horribly the season pass/ticket office is managed.

I purchased a season pass, or so I thought I did, around 5 days before opening day (before the price increase). The charge was pending on my card, so I waited for it to go through before attempting another pass purchase (due to all resorts strict no refund policy). When I called to ask about this pending charge, AF Resort told me to keep checking back, because the "website sometimes does that".

Opening day, I wait in the massive season pass pick up line, where I am told that my pass does not exist. They tell me to call the ticket office.

I explain my predicament and am told that they are having issues with the season pass website and to give it 5 minutes and then check back. I tell them that it has been several days and this is me checking back. The sweet lady on the phone said something like "Oh! Okay, let me check to see if your waiver went through." At this time, I hear a woman in the background absolutely berating the woman I am talking to. She is yelling at her that we can't help, we don't have time for this, get rid of them. (Later learned this angry woman is Jessyka, the supervisor). The sweet lady seemed really taken aback, and stumbling over her words told me that she couldn't help and then hung up on me.

I end up buying a day ticket since I wanted to ride my bike and nobody would help me.

At the end of the day when things had slowed down, I approached the ticket window and Jessyka was directed to me. I explained my situation and the steps I took to solve the problem. She denied that there was any phone call at all and told me that sometimes the website just does that.

She told me to repurchase the pass and assures me that it would still be the pre-season price and that I wouldn't be double charged. I was so deflated at this point, I reluctantly left to figure it out on my phone.

I purchased a pass again with a different credit card, and the same thing happens. Starts a pending charge on my card but doesn't give me any confirmation. I try a 3rd card which finally does give me confirmation, though I somehow have barely missed the cutoff for the price increase.

So now, I am out over $170 ($83 for the day ticket and a pass increase of $90). I still have pending charges, but hopefully those go away soon.

I truly don't understand how the supervisor of a department can be so rude, unhelpful, and just lie to a customers face.

This could have been an easy problem to solve if they were willing to take a 5 minute phone call. Instead, their shortfallings became my problem and I paid for it.

What an incredibly confusing and disappointing way to start the season.

P.S. I will say, every other part of this mountain is awesome. Trails are sick, the guys in the shop are amazing, and vibes are...

Given they did not have an XL bike in their standard downhill rental for $105, I was forced to pay $135 for a "premium" downhill bike. The main issue however was the very poor customer service when dealing with the bike technician. Even though they were not busy at all, the Bike Tech was very surly from the beginning and continued through our two day experience. He never once asked about our experience as riders or preference for bike setup. When asked about the bike tune for me and my 12 year old son, he curtly replied that they were set up to spec without doing a simply asking us to get on the bikes to check or make any adjustments to the suspension or any other aspect of the bike tune. Regretfully I took him for his word and proceeded to ride the trails which have a ton of roots, loose rocks and ruts throughout the park. Since the bikes were not tuned properly the ride was very harsh and not plush as you'd expect from a properly tuned DH bike. Without tools to adjust the suspension ourselves we made a very obvious and helpful adjustment of letting some air out of the tires the already over inflated tires to improve traction and bump dampening. I would guess there was over 35psi in both front and rear tires on both bikes. Also let me add that my son weighs only 126 pounds and deflated tires to about 24 psi (front) and 28psi (rear) which greatly improved his experience. After returning to the bike shop with our concerns about the harsh ride, the same bike tech replied "I have heard that a million times before but never so animated". If that was not enough he also lectured me to never take air out of the tires without their consent stating safety concerns. He could not have known that I am a very experienced mountain biker because he never asked and felt like he had no real concerns for our safety much less our riding preferences and overall enjoyment of our experience at Angel Fire bike park. It is my hope in writing this review that they take care to ensure proper bike tuning for each individual by simply going through a process of checking SAG and other simple adjustments before dismissing expressed concerns from their customers—experienced or not. It has been my experience at other bike park rentals where they have you mount the bike, after their standard settings have been made, to fine tune the bike to your preferences and body type (height, weight, and experience) before sending you on your way to ensure safety and enjoyment...

Okay, so I really want to be fair in this review, but I guess we would rate this the biggest disappointment we have ever had on a slope. The owners had a chance to make it right and chose not to – and that is hard to process.

We rented four top-dollar bikes – over $1000 for the day – and we had a mix of beginners and very experienced riders. After two warm-up runs in perfect weather, lightning closed the lift after noon. As instructed, we sat and waited for it to reopen, all day we sat as the re-open was delayed. Finally, as the time for us to be able to make another run had passed (we had to get the bikes back by the strict 4:30 return time), we turned in the bikes. We asked for some form of reduced price for the next day… anything. We understand that they were under no obligation to take into account our miserable experience, but countless ski slopes across the country take that into account... Angelfire decided not to. We paid $1000 for literally nothing. It was posted that there were no "guaranteed" weather refunds - which we took to mean that they wouldn't be jerks about it. I would not have rented the bikes if I knew that risk was not simply bad weather riding, but for no riding at all.

The staff was friendly and experienced. We could not judge the trails because we never saw anything except the beginner trail. Obviously, the owner must be financially suffering to screw a customer like this? Nonetheless, we have to rate is as it was, a miserable waste of a day and a $1000.

Edit- after returning home to Chicago, and several weeks later - they called to offer a coupon for a reduced price ride if we return. Though we cannot use it, I appreciate the good gesture and remove...